IFS Officer's Photo of Home-made Ghee is Desi Netizen's 'Swad Anusar'

Indians have a special relationship with Ghee. Not what the fancy chefs call ‘clarified butter’, but the rich and heavy desi ghee. Ghee is so diverse and useful that is used in everything, from cooking to cosmetics. Some of the parents still use ghee as a chapstick or lip balm for kids in smaller towns.

And of course, our masalas are a valuable commodity in every kitchen. The whole world sea-trade and colonisation happened in an attempt to discover and trade Indian spices, in a way.

So, when it comes to these two essential kitchen supplies, Indian families only want the best.

While in our busy lives and hustle-bustle, we may opt for supermarkets as they processed ghee and masalas, we all know it is nothing compared to ghar ka bana ghee or Ghar ka peesa masala (home-made ghee or home-ground spices). In most small towns and villages, people still make these two at home.

Though people may go to their local miller to have their spices grinded, the process of procuring, washing, drying and ageing the whole spice is still one of the major household activities in most places. It takes days to prepare, but the end result is always worth it.

With the love for ghee and masalas, it is the passion of most Indian parents to send these precious commodities to their children, wherever they might be in the world.

IFS officer Parveen Kaswan happens to come from one such household. He took to his Twitter account to share a bounty of homemade ghee in large soft-drink bottles and home-ground masalas in plastic packets – courtesy of his mother. He added that you cannot take the village out of the villager, hinting at his preference for the traditional spices and ghee.

This post is double special because apart from love hidden in those products is the ingenious ways in which us Indians recycle products. More accurately, a way in which we never throw out any product unless we have extracted every possible use out of them. Twitter folks were quick to notice the recycled bottled and called it ‘genius.’

The post is now viral with over 16,000 likes.